Sponsor (Jan-June 1952)

sales increases have been running ahead of the industry average. The latter is believed to be the heaviest user of spot in its distribution area, although this must be qualified somewhat since White Kose combines some of its tea and coffee advertising. On WORTV it has tea and coffee plugs 10 times a dav. seven days a week. On radio, White Rose goes for news commentate-, using Charles McCarthy on \\ NBC and Harry Clark on W CBS. for example, i It is interesting to note in this respect that Lipton prefers women's shows when it makes spot buys. I McCormick and White Rose illustrate again the regional character of the popular brands. McCormick is a New England favorite and White Rose's 20-state distribution overlaps McCormick somewhat. In addition to differences in regional distribution, there are often complex factors within a single firm's distribution pattern. One large tea packer found that his sales were divided as follows: farm areas, 18.4% ; cities under 10,000, 25.3%; cities between 10,000 and 100,000, 141% ; cities between 100,000 and 500,000, 8.5% ; cities over 500,000, 33.7%. The picture is further complicated bv the growing iced tea habit, which has marked sectional differences. Iced tea, some people say, saved the industry. This may be fact or fiction but it is unquestionably true that the use of iced tea has been growing strongly and steadily since the summer of 1904, when Richard Blechyden, an Englishman, opened a tea pavilion in the St. Louis World's Fair. Seeing perspiring hordes passing him by in favor of a nearby soft drink emporium, Mr. Blechyden hit on the idea of putting ice in his tea and bottling it. The bottling idea may have been a dud, but tall, frosted glasses filled the niche nicely. Estimates of iced tea drinking in the home during 1951 range an\ where from three billion to six billion glasses. According to the Tea Bureau, 1951 iced tea sales in restaur.ml wen 90' ! above L9 18 and 30' ! above L950. The L95] restaurant sales olTset slight drop in home sales. It is figured that 40% of annual U. S. tea purchases now fall during the four hot months. In some regions this is even more pronounced. Southerners buy 8.1% of their tea during the first quarter of the year; 30.3 % during the second quarter; 45% during the third. The summer sales peak isn"t as high "I have always believed that one of television's greatest assets would be its abiUty to bring into the home events which are still happening, the outcome of which God alone knows." WILLIAM B. LEWIS President Kenyon & Eckhardt, Inc. in other sections of the country, but it is certainly noticeable enough to be taken into account when laying out a broadcast advertising campaign. In the West, the percentage by quarters ranges from 21.2 to 29%0; in the Central States, from 19.8 to 32.2 %». In the East and New England, where tea is most popular, one would expect steady year-'round sales; that is exactly what happens. The variation is confined to a narrow 23.2-26.7% range. A measure of the importance of the iced tea market is the fact that Lipton uses spot radio announcements for iced tea but not hot tea. And it has been estimated that Lipton's share of summer tea sales exceeds 45%. Many advertising men consider soft drinks iced tea's real competition, but in line with what was said above about the difficulty of winning new tea users, most iced tea advertising is directed straight at competing brands. Listen to the beginning of a typical Tetlej radio commercial: "Ladies . . . here's a cold fact about iced tea! How good \our iced tea tastes depends greatl\ on the brand you buy! Because not all teas are the same. . . ." This strong emphasis on brand competition is also partly due to the fact that the mass of the tea packers don't consider themselves well-heeled enough for missionary work. Conversions of the coffee drinkers and soft drink habitues are left to the Tea Council and Arthur Godfrey. The latter packs a wicked sales wallop for Lipton, however, and has probably caused more brand-switching than beverage-switching though many of his commercials have a "try tea" theme. It has also been suggested that the packers who distribute both tea and coffee may find no reason to change their current ratio of popularity (the over-all home-consumption ratio of coffee to tea drinking is three to one) . According to one trade source, the Tender Leaf tea people admit they are not interested in pulling consumers away from Chase and Sanborn's coffee, their brother brand in the Standard Brands family. As for invading territories where tea consumption is low now, even the more prosperous packers feel that remaining within their present distribution area is safest and most profitable. This brings up the fascinating question of whether the industry distribution setup determines tea habits or whether tea habits determine the industry distribution setup. An answer to this could shed much light on tea's future. For the present, though, there is no question about the fact that individ In Boston 30 JUNE 1952